Set during the Ming dynasty this film opens with the theft of the 'Sunflower Manual' from the Imperial Palace. This, it turns out, is a martial arts manual giving details of a powerful secret technique. Now just about everybody appears to want the scroll. The scroll is hidden under a waterwheel and two students of the Mount Hua Sect, Linghu Chong and Yue 'Skinny Boy' Lingshan, are asked to inform the son of the man who took it. They will encounter many dangers including from some of the people they thought they could trust most.I would usually describe the plot in a bit more detail but to be honest I was a bit confused a fair amount of the time… strangely this wasn't much of a problem as this film is all about the action and the action rarely stops. There is a lot of wire-assisted martial arts, fights involving mystical powers, poisoning and even a fighter who produces snakes from her sleeves! In in brief lulls between the action scenes there are some amusing moments, many involving the existence of a second scroll which merely contains the lyrics to a song the protagonists learn along the way. There is also the running gag that nobody apart from Linghu realises that 'Skinny Boy' is actually an attractive young woman! While this is mostly light hearted there is some spilt blood and, in the film's most disturbing moment, the sight or a recently removed eyeball! The cast do a solid job, most notably Samuel Hui and Cecilia Yip as our two protagonists; the rest are pretty impressive too and appeared to be having a good time. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of Wuxia films; it may be a little confusing at times but is still a lot of fun.These comments are based on watching the film in Cantonese with English subtitles.

THE SWORDSMAN is a movie very much in the style of the classically-influenced Wuxia movies of the 1960s, like DRAGON GATE INN (1966) and A TOUCH OF ZEN (1969), which was based in turn on a Qing Dynasty (17th Century) story by Songling Pu. These sword movies were at their most popular in the years running up to the earliest kungfu movies like Chinese BOXER (1970) and THE BIG BOSS (1971), but are not to be confused with the more familiar martial arts movies, as they have conventions and rules all their own.Wuxia movies are typified by the spectacular sword battles where antagonists fly through the air in prodigious leaps as they cross swords. This kind of spectacle may have reached its pinnacle in the stunning sword battles seen IN CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON or HERO, but it can trace its roots back to the earliest swordplay movies of King Hu and the first New Wave movies like Tsui Hark's ZU: WARRIORS OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN. But Wuxia films are also about honour and the code of the warrior, and in this respect resemble Samurai movies more than kungfu films.In THE SWORDSMAN, the students of the Hua Mountain style of sword fencing have developed their Chi (internal power) to such a high degree that they are able to quite literally float through the air during their sword battles. Most powerful of all the Hua Mountain practitioners is Sifu Ngok, teacher to the young hero of the story Ling Wu Chung. Or so it seems. Early in the film, Wu Chung meeting an elder of the Hua Mountain Clan, Fung Ching Yeung, who'd gone into hiding so his enemies wouldn't try to control him by harming his family. Fung recognises Wu Chung as one of his own clan and teaches him the deadly "Nine Solitary Swordplays" and it is these techniques he uses against his own traitorous sifu.As other reviewers have noted, "The Song" does get a bit of a caning in this movie, and I defy anyone who's heard it once to get it out of their heads in less than five days.And it should be pointed out that Celia Yip is fooling no one with that boy disguise. Though in all fairness, this "girl disguised (badly) as boy" routine crops up a lot in Chinese stories. Anyone remember the equally gorgeous Kara Hui (Hui Ying-Hung) in EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER searching for brother Gordon Liu disguised as a man?Wuxia have to be accepted on their own terms. There is a prevailing belief in China that the Chi abilities of martial artists in historical times were far superior to what contemporary kungfu experts are capable of. This is no different to the belief in the West that ancient seers were able to predict the future. Neither set of beliefs have any real credibility, but it makes for fun storytelling.THE SWORDSMAN is a pretty good example of the genre, but to be honest, the sequel, SWORDSMAN II, is the better movie.

I bought this for 2 bux at a video store cause i thought it seemed good and it had jet Li in it. but i didn't really think it was a very good film. the story is good and some of the action scenes are pretty cool but some of them are at night and are hard to see. some of them also seem sort of stupid looking when they jump around because it looks unrealistic. it is a good film don't get me wrong but they should've filmed it better. i was a bit bored by it but i didn't really mind it. it's not the best kung fu film i have seen but it's better than some i've seen. you should check it out if you don't mind bad lighting and some bad camera angles (not many though)

Swordsman was so popular in Hong Kong that it sprang two other sequels, which starred Jet Li. I consider this film to be a classic which started the whole "flying people martial art" movement in the 90's.The movie is about a sacred scroll stolen from the vault of the emperor's palace. Different groups of people wanted to get their hands on the scroll, from the master of the Wan San school, to the Eunuches. Along the way, there are a lot of fighting, a lot of singing, comic relief, even an irony of how the most powerful martial art is no match against modern weapons (In Swordsman III - the east is red, this would have reversed, culminating in the quote "You have science, I have mysterious kung fu, your science is s**t")The movie does not take itself too seriously. One of the best kung-fu/comedy/flying sword fights combination.